The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1887-08-13

Clayton came IN where was Taxing
lly noon smoke and kind of dropped
down in a chair by the door, as If he
couldn't get any farther.
"Mountaineers" he said, with a
kind of gasp.
"WhatP" l said, not knowing but it
was another kind of an Indian.
"GrasshoppersP 1t seems he had
been there before.
ran out, and sure enough there they
were, coming up against the sun like
low kind of cloud. And in a minute
or two it was like being out in live
hail-storm. We tried to fight them
with fire and hot water but we gave 1T
up in an hour. All day we sat and
listened to that horrible cracking and
crunching, and when they got through
it looked as if fire had gone over us
Not a green thing left, and corn-stalks
gnawed down to stumps.
We held council of war. The end
of it was that we drove our stock into
the town next day, thirty miles, and
sold it. 1t didn't make us rich, but at
least we got the price of the hides.
Then three of us went to work in the
coal-shippings, and Jim Clayton went
back to stay with the women. He had
smashed his shoulder that summer and
was of no mortal use with shovel and
pick. We were to keep them in sup
plies, and it looked as if, after all,
things might have been worse.
And they got worse before a great
while. The coal company petered out
just as the real cold weather set in.
We took back big load of coal; it was
the only pay we ever got for our last
fortnight's work, and called another
council.
Along in November late-about the
time when they were keeping Thanks
giving on the side where they know
what Thanksgiving means-we started
out on a buffalo hunt. There was
enough to eat, such as it was, for a
month in the cabins, and fuel enough
to keep them warm; and by that time
we thought work might begin again.
Anyway, we'd have our meat for the
rest of the winter.
Well, it's no use to 60 over that. 1t
wasn't q pleasure trip. We weren't
out for the fun of killing. Wecamped
out at night, and rode and shot and
dressed game by day, and did not starve
nor quite freeze to death; and we got
back again on to the plains along in
December.
wanted to push through and get
home, but the horses were played out;
and all the next day, after we struck
the level, we just crawled along. We
had not heard a word since we started,
and l was pretty anxious-Molly was
not well when l left her; but there was
no choice about it. l had to go; the
women were with her, and there was
doctor in the town, and Clayton had
a good horse, and we had to d. about
that az we had done about every thing
clSc-take our chances.
l shan't forget that day. Along in
the middle of the morning a nOrtheI
began to blow. 1t did not snow, al
though the sky thickencd up with
gray, woolly-looking clouds, low down
and threatening. You never felt a
norther? A wind that goes through
your bones, that clutches your heart
and stops your brain, that breaks YOU
up, body and soul. You don't know
any thing about cold till you've fell
one. If there is such a thing as {
frozen hell, that's where these winds
come from. 1t isn't pure cold; it.,
ghost cold, and all the internal region.
let loose, yelling and laundering up in
the awful emptiness over your heaC
and round you.
Love the prairiesP Well, you car
love them a good deal better on paper
than anywhere else. But there's ar
awful fascination about them, some
how. It's like the sea. A man that
got his living on them for ten years il
fit for nothing else in Gods world. H,
can't get away. He's spoiled for ever,
thing else under Heaven. He's got t,
have the sky and a chance to breathe
It's about all there is to get, bette
: than he can have anywhere else; blu
it's a sure fact that 80 much he's got {,
have whatever else gets left It's TX,
poem, may bel amt much OF
rhyme" myself-driving across them il
warm weather; horses fresh and wei
fed, with big tent and spring cot
, for camping and a supply WACO,
with every thing you can think @
but ice, and may be that; all tn
world a-ripple with summer green; tn
, south wind surging like Il warm ocean
E and the sky blue and soft and archin
} away up to the great White Throne
That's one thing. To go trailing along